Dear Parents,
At Kirk Sandall Infant School we use the Read Write Inc (RWI) programme to get children off to a
flying start with their reading. The following is designed to offer information about how you can help
with your child’s reading at home.
RWI is a phonics based approach to teaching reading. It involves children learning to read sounds
and how to blend them together to read words.
RWI is a successful reading programme that enables every child to become a confident and fluent
reader at a pace that they are comfortable with.
The children learn 44 sounds (speed sounds). These are the letter sounds and not letter names. The
speed sounds are divided into small groups. Once your child has learnt all the sounds in one group,
they can move on to sound blending the letters in that group to read words.
The speed sound groups:
For example, once your child has learnt to
read the first 5 sounds: m a s d t they can
then start to read words that include
these sounds, such as mat, sat, sad, mad,
at, etc.
Your child will then learn the next five
sounds and be able to read words with a
combination of ten sounds.
How can I use RWI at home?
1.
Help your child to learn the speed sounds. Your child may bring home a key ring of letter
sounds and words to practise. (Please avoid using letter names with early readers)
2.
Help your child to read words by sound blending. (We call this Fred Talk in school)
3.
Read with your child regularly (daily if possible).
Types of Sounds
Pure sounds
When teaching the speed sounds it is very important that you do not add ‘uh’ to the end of the
consonant sound. Try to pronounce them as pure sounds: ‘mmm’ not ‘muh’, ‘sss’ not ‘suh’ and ‘lll’
not ‘luh’.
This can be difficult to begin with but by only using pure sounds, you child will find it much easier to
blend the sounds to make words.
The following link demonstrates correct pronunciation on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J2Ddf_0Om8
Or see the attached pronunciation guide.
Stretchy and bouncy sounds
Stretchy sounds are said in one continuous
sound, e.g. mmmmm as in mountain.
Bouncy sounds are said with a short sharp
gap between, e,g, d-d-d as in d-d-d dinosaur.
Sound blends
Your child is ready to sound blend once they
have learnt the first set of sounds and can say
these in and out of order. In school we call
this Fred Talk.
Fred Talk involves reading the sounds within a
word and then blending them together to
read the word, e.g. c-a-t cat; sh-o-p shop; s-tr-ee-t street
Red and Green words
Green words
Green words are words that your child will be able to sound out and then blend together using the
speed sounds they have learnt.
Your child will be able to read a book more easily if they practise reading these words first.
Red words
Red words are those words which contain spelling patterns that cannot be sounded out. Some of the
most frequently used words in the English language have an uncommon spelling pattern and don’t
sound like they look, e.g. said sounds like ‘sed’.
Your child may bring home a key ring with some red words to learn. When you show each word your
child should say the word instantly and not sound them out.
What next?
Alongside reading, your child will also be taught to form each letter correctly using simple pictorial
letters with phrases. You can see these phrases at the following link:
Handwriting phrases
At each stage of learning, your child will read a range of story and information books which enable
him or her to apply the sounds learnt so far. This also provides opportunity to read the red words,
learn about simple punctuation and develop understanding.
Once your child is confident with the simple speed sounds, he or she will move onto the more
complex speed sounds. These are the long vowel sounds and you can view these at the following
link:
Speed Sounds
You can purchase Speed Sounds Set 1 and
Speed Sounds Set 2 and 3 online at Amazon or Ebay.
Your child will gradually build up the sounds s/he recognises and will have plenty of opportunity to
read and write words containing these sounds until eventually your child is a confident and fluent
reader!
We hope you have found this information helpful but if at any time you have any questions, please
ask your child’s class teacher.